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IEEE 1394

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IEEE 1394

IEEE 1394 is an interface standard for a serial bus for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Apple in cooperation with a number of companies, primarily Sony and Panasonic. It is most commonly known by the name FireWire (Apple), though other brand names exist such as i.LINK (Sony), and Lynx (Texas Instruments). Most consumer electronics manufacturers phased out IEEE 1394 from their product lines in the 2010s.

The copper cable used in its most common implementation can be up to 4.5 m (15 ft) long. Power and data is carried over this cable, allowing devices with moderate power requirements to operate without a separate power supply. FireWire is also available in Cat 5 and optical fiber versions.

The 1394 interface is comparable to USB. USB was developed subsequently and gained much greater market share. USB requires a host controller whereas IEEE 1394 is cooperatively managed by the connected devices.

FireWire is Apple's name for the IEEE 1394 High Speed Serial Bus. Its development was initiated by Apple in 1986, and developed by the IEEE P1394 Working Group, largely driven by contributions from Sony (102 patents), Apple (58 patents), Panasonic (46 patents), and Philips (43 patents), in addition to contributions made by engineers from LG Electronics, Toshiba, Hitachi, Canon, INMOS/SGS Thomson (now STMicroelectronics), and Texas Instruments.

IEEE 1394 is a serial bus architecture for high-speed data transfer, serial meaning that information is transferred one bit at a time. Parallel buses utilize a number of different physical connections, and as such are usually more costly and typically heavier. IEEE 1394 fully supports both isochronous and asynchronous applications.

Apple intended FireWire to be a serial replacement for the parallel SCSI bus, while providing connectivity for digital audio and video equipment. Apple's development began in the late 1980s, later presented to the IEEE, and was completed in January 1995. In 2007, IEEE 1394 was a composite of four documents: the original IEEE Std. 1394–1995, the IEEE Std. 1394a-2000 amendment, the IEEE Std. 1394b-2002 amendment, and the IEEE Std. 1394c-2006 amendment. On June 12, 2008, all these amendments as well as errata and some technical updates were incorporated into a superseding standard, IEEE Std. 1394–2008.

Apple first included onboard FireWire in some of its 1999 Macintosh models (though it had been a build-to-order option on some models since 1997), and most Apple Macintosh computers manufactured from 2000 through 2011 included FireWire ports. However, in February 2011, Apple introduced its first Mac with Thunderbolt, which superseded FireWire. Apple released its last computers with FireWire in 2012. By 2014, Thunderbolt had become a standard feature across Apple's entire line of computers (later with the exception of the 12-inch MacBook introduced in 2015, which featured only a sole USB-C port), effectively becoming the spiritual successor to FireWire in the Apple ecosystem. Apple's last Mac products with FireWire, the Thunderbolt Display and 2012 13-inch MacBook Pro, were discontinued in 2016. Apple sold a Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter, with a single FireWire 800 port, until 2023. A separate adapter was required to use it with Thunderbolt 3.

Sony's implementation of the system, i.LINK, used a smaller connector with only four signal conductors, omitting the two conductors that provide power for devices in favor of a separate power connector. This style was later added into the 1394a amendment. This port is sometimes labeled S100 or S400 to indicate speed in Mbit/s.

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